2019 - 2024 Quad-E, Malacca, Malaysia

We were privileged to serve the local Quad E ministry in Malacca, Malaysia. The ministry was started by Dr. Boon Hock Lim pictured on the left here with his wife Queck  -  simply for the sake of finding a home for Matthew, their son who is now 33 years old in 2024 has Russell Silver Syndrome (a growth disorder akin to Down syndrome and Autism).

Photo credit: Anna Seeley

This campus is for special needs residents like Matthew. It is a safe place where residents can live, work, study, and play. Why should they not have that opportunity? Accessibility is defined as the manipulation of the physical environment so that everyone regardless of special needs or not can enjoy the same spaces to live, work and play. This project is operated out of our EMI Cambodia office (Petram): where I served as the Sr. Architect. Malaysia is situated in southeast Asia. It is composed of two regions: Peninsular Malaysia in the west and lying between Thailand and Singapore.

In 2019, one of the first things we do is walk the site with the local host ministry to gain a more tactile sense of site’s design constraints. Another thing I wanted to impress upon you is the steepness of the site. There is a 10 m difference between the river and the road (which is like a 3 story building).

Survey and Civil 3D by Vannlydeth Chen

While the survey team does the survey work in the hot and humid climate, the designers are back in the air conditioned office running the programming meetings with the Client and studying the site in sketch format. 

Photo credit: Anna Seeley

You see below the three primary options to build on the flattest area of the land while avoiding the steep areas as much as possible.

Masterplanning sketches by Dan Chong, EMI Architect

Designing for special needs residents is partially like designing an accessible site for the handi-capped. While we were studying site, we noticed how the 4 E’s of Quad E’s four main objective aligns well with 4 accessibility concepts used in the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). This chart represents the heart of the project 

Accessible route means that each of the buildings can be accessed not only for cars and fire trucks, but for future considerations when they are able to accept residents who may be confined to a wheelchair.

One of our primary recommendations was to place all the primary functions of each building on the ground floor to be accessed directly from grade. This is the most cost effective approach for a rural site such as this. 

The Admin block houses a multi-purpose room for 100 persons to meet; which can be subdivided into two smaller classrooms of 50 people. As a Christ centered ministry, it was important for Quad E to have a chapel space for 40 people. We have located this in the most prominent center part of the site. There is also open offices and conference room in case an administrator would like to meet with potential residents. The bathroom spaces you will notice are larger than usually seen in Malaysia because they are using clearances for potential future wheelchairs.

Rendering by  Vuth Nuon, EMI (Petram)

Above is the exterior rendering of the Admin building. One thing we noticed at Boon Hock’s office was a small bell they use to let Matthew know it is time to change activities or simply a ring for lunch or dinner time. It is the auditory signal that provides order and comfort or a predicable day for adults of special needs.

So, at the top of the Chapel – we have a bell tower to mark the chapel and the entry to the site. It sits one of the highest part of the site at the main entry.

Sometimes, we are called to take care of more than just one person in our lives. Even if this person is your own child. Boon Hock has been called not only take care of just Matthew…but a larger population group of adults with special needs. This bell tower you see is a metaphor to explain the care that Mathew gets as an individual (from Boon Hock and Quek) is scalable to a larger group of people. It represents the aspirations of Quad E and what they are planning to use this site for. I share a personal connection with Boon Hok when we are able to share our own research with each other about how to care for the special needs population.

The other two images below are of bell and clock towers in the historic part of Malacca just to show you that this kind of element is not foreign to Malacca, and was actually used in a more pioneering time.

The layout of this building is primarily inspired from a school for autistic children. In contrast to more traditional classrooms, we discovered that teachers wanted their own desk space which allows some privacy, but not completely away from the general classroom setting. There is a quiet room which affords teachers to take students who are having difficulties out of the classroom setting, and bring them back once they are calmer. 

Here is the exterior of our Therapy building which we have designed screens on the exterior with plants. Hopefully this will shield the windows from moving cars and pedestrians, but still provide sunlight though the windows (and therefore less reliance on electrical lighting during daytime hours).

Rendering by Menea Ly, EMI (Petram)

The Therapy pool is comprised of two separate pools; one indoors with therapy jets which can be used year round. But because Malaysia is quite warm for most of the year, the primary swimming pool is located outdoors under a fabric tent which provides a softer feel to the swimming environment.

Rendering by  Sereyuth Nuon, EMI (Petram)

Calming activities: For adults with special needs, there is always a need for calming activities which provides a break the noise around them. For instance:

1)      An accessible playground, but will have age appropriate play equipment

2)      An opportunity to access the creek at the bottom of the site for aquaponics activities like fish farming, and aquaponics farming. This provides a sense of normalcy in the lives of adults with special needs. It allows them to feel like any one of us who get in a car in the morning to go to work and come back in the afternoon.

3)      There is also a restrictive 3 m planting set back all around the property line as well as a 6 m building line set back, so a total of 9 m. We are taking trying to take advantage of that by providing planting area which the residents can use like another calming activity.

Residential Buildings: now heading to the other side of the site, this is the residential building that the residents live in. Each building has space for two live in care givers. The bathrooms and kitchens may look bigger because they require wheelchair access – just in case there is a need for that in the future. From interviews with parents with adults with special needs, there was a desire to have a secondary meeting room that can be used privately between the parent and resident in privacy without disturbing the other residents.

Guesthouses: The last accessibility concept to look at is visit-ability. The primary functions of the guesthouses are all available on one floor which is accessed from grade. Guesthouses are for parents to stay overnight in, but also has a lower level which can house family members traveling with the parents. The lower level is not on the accessible route, but not all the spaces need to be accessible if each one of the primary function spaces are accessible from the ground floor.

As you can see from the rendering, space for the lowel level is available due to the extreme sloping of the site. It is a space that exists anyways due to the steepness of the site.

Here is a quick video fly through of the site planning:

Video fly through by Menea Ly, (EMI Petram)

Finally, here is our EMI project team: 

Top Row: Kathleen Wassenaar (EMI Project leader), Menea Ly (EMI-Petram Arch), Dan Chong (EMI Canada), Vicky Mah (EMI Project leader), Marin Chuuong (EMI-Petram Civil), Anna Seeley (EMI videographer)

Bottom Row: Lydeth Chen (EMI-Petram Civil), Vuth Nuon  (EMI-Petram Arch), Evan Dahl (Civil Engineer volunteer)

In keeping with our EMI Core Values of Design, Diversity, and Discipleship - on our design team, we had three Americans, two Canadians, and four young Cambodians; they were a real encouragement to me as they provided the "energy" for the design team!

In 2022, we discovered through the ministry client that there exists a zoning restriction for this site to be developed primarily as an agricultural site, but the main building on the site can be as large as needed - but it does need to be one building. Since concept design was finished, we were able to pass on the conceptual design ideas to a local architect who took the development of the design through the zoning process and through detailed design in 2023. We even introduced the client ministry to a local ministry and vendor who supplies systems for organic farming for a facility for the disabled in Singapore:

In a visit in 2024, we discovered that zoning was recently approved. Below are simple phasing mark-up plans of the ground floor and 1st floor plans we shared with the client ministry:

phase 1 (0-5 years) and phase 2 (5-10 year) plan

first floor phase 1 in blue

ground floor phase 1 in blue

Phase 1 circulation and stacking diagram

site visit with Boon Hock

and finally, the construction permit for construction fencing!